Social Entrepreneurship Education in Higher Education: Insights from a Developing Country

Abstract

The purpose of this research is to investigate awareness, intentions/support, and the contextual elements among higher education students in the University of Tehran (UT) in order to find the gap(s) in social entrepreneurship education in Iran. The authors used Ajzen's theory of planned behaviour as the theoretical framework. The research questions are based on a revised version of Kirby and Ibrahim's (2011) questionnaire. A survey was conducted in three faculties of UT. These faculties were selected intentionally, to evaluate the social entrepreneurship gaps for post-graduates of entrepreneurship, management, and engineering, and to capture varied orientations. Findings show a significant rate of intention towards and awareness of the concept among respondents, but a lack of sufficient attention to contextual elements and adequate support. Investigating social entrepreneurship intention and education is lacking in Iran's higher education and this study is one of the first in the country.

Keywords: theory of planned behaviour, TPB, social entrepreneurship, entrepreneurship education, higher education, developing countries, Iran, postgraduates, entrepreneurial orientation